News and Features
Related to Health Care Reform

By Julie Appleby
A group of Wall Street analysts predicted Friday that enrollment in health law insurance plans will be higher than the 9 million projected by the Obama administration because insurers are aggressively courting new customers and more small businesses are likely to send workers to the

By Mary Agnes Carey
Just days before the health law’s marketplaces reopened, nearly a quarter of uninsured said they expect to remain without coverage because they did not think it would be affordable, according to a poll released Friday. That was by far the most common reason given by people who ex

By Roni Caryn Rabin
After several years of modest increases, American spending on medications is projected to shoot up by 12 percent this year, pushing the nation’s drug bill to between $375 billion and $385 billion, according to a report by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. Several fact

By Anna Gorman
California’s experiment aimed at moving almost 500,000 low-income seniors and disabled people automatically into managed care has been rife with problems in its first six months, leading to widespread confusion, frustration and resistance. Many beneficiaries have received stacks of pa

By Jay Hancock
You don’t get a pass this year on big health insurance decisions because you’re not shopping in an Affordable Care Act marketplace. Employer medical plans — where most working-age folks get coverage — are changing too. Rising costs, a looming tax on rich benefit packages and the idea

By Jenny Gold
When it comes to expanding health coverage to its poorest residents, California could be taking two steps forward and one step back. Even as the state celebrates its enrollment of more than 2.7 million low-income Californians in Medi-Cal in 2014, it may drop an unusually high number of

By Phil Galewitz and Anna Gorman
A Los Angeles furniture store worker who had never had health insurance enrolled in a plan for $75 a month that will cover both him and his son. An unemployed accountant in Charlotte, N.C., who tried and failed to sign up last year found coverage for $11.75 a month.

By Phil Galewitz
Idaho on Saturday becomes the latest state to launch its own health insurance exchange under the federal health law, with marketplace officials promising an easier shopping experience for consumers and greater responsiveness to insurance agents. But the exchange, yourhealthidaho.org

By Michelle Andrews
Mind the gap. When the 2015 open enrollment period begins on Nov. 15 for plans sold on the individual market, consumers should act promptly to avoid a gap in coverage. Failing to do so could not only leave you exposed to unexpected medical bills—hello, appendicitis!—but you could

Nov. 10, 2014 -- As we head into the second open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act, consumers will see a revamped Healthcare.gov that government officials say will be easier to use. But with provisions of the law set to take effect for the first time this year, new challenges also lie